TBoB - Book 7 - Chapter 61 - Terror from the deep (Patreon)

Whoops, originally had the wrong book in the heading. Definately for book 7, not book 2.

The first thing to shoot out of the oily haze wasn’t a set of enveloping tentacles or snapping maw, like I expected, but a volley of long, straight spines. They were so fast that I didn’t even have a chance to dodge; all I could do was watch as the fan of projectiles swept through the area. 

Time seemed to slow as my mind attempted to triangulate the trajectory of every projectile, trying to find a way out. I could tell that most of the spears were going to miss me due to my small stature, but not all of them. 

One of the projectiles shot from the oily mass and struck me in the forehead, sending a loud ‘crack’ noise echoing through my helmet and sending me tumbling to the ground. The impact left a long jagged crack in my visor. The helmet creaked under the water pressure, and for a second, I was concerned it would completely fail, but then the autorepair function activated and began to fix the crack.

“The fuck was that?” I growled as I flipped around, trying to regain my feet. I’d only managed to get as far as my knees when I spotted what had struck me. It was a harpoon, and I don’t mean a bone one. It was long, metallic, and obviously artificial. “What the fuck is this?!?” I yelled, batting the shaft away. 

“You okay over there?” Sharron yelled from somewhere over on my right. 

“I’m a little banged up, but otherwise fine. Nothing penetrated my armour,” I replied, without looking at her. After that last salvo, I wasn’t willing to take my eyes off the thing that was approaching us.

“It would take a lot more than that to scratch my armour, never mind penetrate it,” Sharron declared, before pausing for a moment. “Did you notice…”“Yeah. The fucking thing fired harpoons at us. That’s a new one…” I muttered. “Nyx, I want a wall down between myself and that fucking thing. I’m not very mobile down here, and I don’t know if my armour would hold up to a sustained barrage.”

Done, Nyx reported as the massive barrier materialized and anchored itself into place. Do you want some reinforcements, too?“Not until I know what this thing is, and how it managed to take the rest of my forces down,” I replied. 

I struggled up to the side of the wall, peeked out, and unloaded into the approaching mass. I was hoping that maybe the shifting mass was a horde of something, climbing over each other, but as far as I could tell, my attacks didn’t have much of an effect. 

As I pulled back to reload, the mass lurched forward, giving me my first look at the thing. The first thing to emerge was something that looked like a combination of a vine and a snake. It was as thick as a tree and had three pairs of large, pale-white eyes. By the time I’d finished reloading, four more of the massive heads emerged from the oil, bobbing back and forth as they slowly crawled forward.

Before I could target one of the oversized serpents, Sharron stepped forward and unleashed her lasers on the closest head. They didn’t just scorch the thing, but completely eviscerated it, slicing the creature’s head into pieces in a matter of seconds. But, instead of falling, the creature’s neck just shook back and forth a couple of times. The stump split in half, and six new eyes emerged. 

That wasn’t the most horrifying part, though, because while the creature sprouted a new head, another tendril pushed through the oil. At the end of it was a familiar-looking, headless body in power armour. Kingfisher’s one remaining arm still held onto the harpoon gun he was using before.

“What the fuck is this morbid…” I started, which immediately seemed to draw the attention of one of the heads. As it turned to look at me, Kingfisher’s body raised the harpoon gun and unloaded a volley in my direction. “WHAT THE FUCK!” I screamed as I ducked back behind my wall. 

Several laser blasts shot past me, not from Sharron but from a source deeper into the oil, and a second later, something exploded against the other side of the wall. Although the explosion couldn’t reach me, the water carried the effect of the blast wave around the wall and into me. My bones rattled as I was carried away from the barrier.

“Owwww…. That hurt,” I moaned. “Sharron, you okay?” 

“I’m fine, but that torpedo system packs a punch,” she shouted so I could hear her over her lasers. “We might want to think about backing off. Not are these things controlling bodies, and recovering from wounds almost instantly, but I don’t even know if it’s one creature or several. If it’s just one, it’s huge!”

“Screw retreating! We can’t let these things run loose. If we do, it’ll almost certainly track down whatever survivors and corpses that are still around and try to use them. Just like it’s using Kingfisher and the others,” I growled. 

“If that’s the case, I hope you have a plan, because it’s still closing in!” Sharron yelled.

“I’ve got an idea anyway,” I muttered, looking up. The purifiers had done an admirable job of clearing the oil and chaff from this general area, they hadn’t quite cleared the way to the surface. “I hope this works.”[Spooky? You there?] I asked, routing the message through the pair of otters above us.

[Boss? The connection seems to be a little spotty, but I’m here. How can I help you?] the bear asked back.

[Listen. There’s something down here, I think it crushed the bears I brought with me and seems to be paracyting the dead. It’s massive, but slow,] I said.

[Oh… I think I know where this is going,] the bear said knowingly. [Just tell me where you want the strike.] 

[Take the coordinates from the otter that I’m using as a relay, and fire fifty feet…] I triggered the hud in my helmet and turned my head towards the beast, then checked the compass at the top. [West North West.]

[You realize that fifty feet isn’t danger close for our missile systems, right? You’ll be straight up in the blast zone,] Spooky said. 

[I know. Contact the rest of the fleet, let them know what’s going on. Maybe Warspite, or our orbital support, can do something. Otherwise, I’ll let you know when we manage to get clear,] I said as another torpedo slammed against my bear-a-cade. Thankfully, since I’d been thrown away by the previous attack, I was out of the blast zone this time. [If we manage to get clear…]

[Do you want reinforcements? I know Heavy’s been getting antsy,] Spooky asked. 

[No, the chaff is too thick. I lost the entire recon force without knowing. Have you been able to re-establish contact with the Marsupial?] 

[I did. However, it was to close to the explosion, and took some damage from the shockwave. It’s on the way back. Do you want me to send it back out?]

I shook my head, not that he could see it. [Not if it’s that badly damaged. Instead, call back all the salvage trucks and have them start breaking down this oil. Once we clear up the area, we can get a better idea of what the situation is,] I said. [I’ll call you back when I can, but I have a feeling I’m going to be a little busy for the foreseeable future.]

[Good luck boss,] Spooky said.

[Thanks,] I replied, as the lead head peaked over the top of the bear-a-cade. It didn’t seem like it had noticed me yet, so I unloaded my rifle into its jaw as I retreated.  Despite the weapon ripping straight through the creature’s head, blowing massive chunks out of its jaw, the creature seemed almost completely unfazed. It slowly turned towards me and opened it’s maw, revealing dozens of writhing tentacles and lunged. [I’m going to need it.]